I was always influenced by language.

In a world without air all you breathe is adventure!

i wish i was away in Ingo far across the briny sea sailing over deepest waters where neither care nore worry trouble me

For you where never my blood sister so no more shall I call you little sister

I enjoy research; in fact research is so engaging that it would be easy to go on for years, and never write the novel at all.

I can remember being in my pram: children stayed in their prams much longer then than they do now. A big bouncy pram with black covers and a hood with metal clips that could trap your fingers. I was looking up at my sister who was sitting on the pram seat, with her back to me.

Mourning Ruby is not a flat landscape: it is more like a box with pictures painted on every face. And each face is also a door which opens, I hope, to take the reader deep into the book.